Ron Cook
Ronald G. Cook (born 1948) is an English actor. He has been active in film, television and theatre since the 1970s. Early and personal life Cook was born in 1948 in South Shields, County Durham, England, the son of a school cook and a car worker. When he was six his family moved to Coventry; he went to Wyken Croft Junior School and then Caludon Castle School and is a graduate of Rose Bruford College. Career On stage, he appeared in the original 1988 production of Timberlake Wertenbaker's play ''Our Country's Good''. He was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award in the category of Best Supporting Actor in 2000 for his role in '' Juno and the Paycock'' at the Donmar Warehouse. He also appeared in a new play by Conor McPherson, '' The Seafarer'', at the Royal National Theatre. In 2008–2009, he took part in the Donmar's West End season at Wyndham's Theatre, playing Sir Toby Belch in ''Twelfth Night'' and Polonius in ''Hamlet''. In 2011, he played The Fool in ''King Lear'' st ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Genes Reunited
Genes Reunited, originally known as Genes Connected, is a genealogy website that was launched in the UK in 2003 as a sister-site to Friends Reunited.Phil Inman, Sean Dodson (29 April 2004"Genes reunited" ''The Guardian''. Retrieved 2013-02-08. It has over 13 million members and over 780 million names listed. History Steve and Julie Pankhurst, the creators of Friends Reunited originally formed Genes Connected in 2003 as a sister-site to Friends Reunited, It was later rebranded as Genes Reunited and was sold to ITV in 2005."ITV buys Friends Reunited website" BBC News, 6 December 2005. Retrieved 2013-11-02. Genes Reunited was part of the group that was sold to Brightsolid in 2009. It is now one of the family history brands, including [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Twelfth Night
''Twelfth Night'', or ''What You Will'' is a romantic comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written around 1601–1602 as a Twelfth Night's entertainment for the close of the Christmas season. The play centres on the twins Viola and Sebastian, who are separated in a shipwreck. Viola (who is disguised as Cesario) falls in love with the Duke Orsino, who in turn is in love with Countess Olivia. Upon meeting Viola, Countess Olivia falls in love with her thinking she is a man. The play expanded on the musical interludes and riotous disorder expected of the occasion, with plot elements drawn from the short story "Of Apollonius and Silla" by Barnabe Rich, based on a story by Matteo Bandello. The first recorded public performance was on 2 February 1602, at Candlemas, the formal end of Christmastide in the year's calendar. The play was not published until its inclusion in the 1623 First Folio. Characters * Viola – a shipwrecked young woman who disguises herself a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Deborah Findlay
Deborah Findlay (born 23 December 1947) is an English actress. She joined a theatre company while studying English at the University of Leeds. Career Findlay has worked primarily on stage and appeared in numerous productions, including the original ''Top Girls''. In the 1980s she worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company where she appeared in ''Twelfth Night'' and ''The Merchant Of Venice''. In 1997 she won an Olivier Award, as well as Outer Critics' Circle Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play, for her performance as Hilda, the wife of the painter Stanley Spencer in Pam Gems' play ''Stanley.'' In 2008 she starred in the US premiere of '' Vincent River'' by Philip Ridley. In 2009 she appeared alongside Judi Dench in a Donmar West End revival of '' Madame de Sade.'' In 2013 she starred in the Donmar Warehouse production of Coriolanus as Volumnia, a role which earned her Clarence Derwent award for best supporting actress. In 2016 she appeared on the stage of The Royal C ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Francesca Annis
Francesca Annis (born 14 May 1945) is an English actress. She is known for television roles in '' Reckless'' (1998), ''Wives and Daughters'' (1999), ''Deceit'' (2000), and '' Cranford'' (2007). A six-time BAFTA TV Award nominee, she won the 1979 BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress for the ITV serial '' Lillie''. Her film appearances include ''Krull'' (1983), ''Dune'' (1984), '' The Debt Collector'' (1999), and '' The Libertine'' (2004). Early life and education Annis was born in Kensington, London in 1945, to an English father, Lester William Anthony Annis (1914–2001) and a Brazilian-French mother, Mariquita (Mara) Purcell (1913–2009). Both were sometime actors and Mara a sometime singer. Mara was from a wealthy Brazilian family. The Annises moved to Brazil when Francesca was one year old, and spent six years there, returning to England when she was seven. In recollecting the years in Brazil, she described her parents as running "a nightclub on Copacabana beach", and her mothe ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Royal Court Theatre
The Royal Court Theatre, at different times known as the Court Theatre, the New Chelsea Theatre, and the Belgravia Theatre, is a non-commercial West End theatre in Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England. In 1956 it was acquired by and remains the home of the English Stage Company, which is known for its contributions to contemporary theatre and won the Europe Prize Theatrical Realities in 1999. History The first theatre The first theatre on Lower George Street, off Sloane Square, was the converted Nonconformist Ranelagh Chapel, opened as a theatre in 1870 under the name The New Chelsea Theatre. Marie Litton became its manager in 1871, hiring Walter Emden to remodel the interior, and it was renamed the Court Theatre. Several of W. S. Gilbert's early plays were staged here, including ''Randall's Thumb'', ''Creatures of Impulse'' (with music by Alberto Randegger), ''Great Expectations'' (adapted from the Dickens novel), and ''On Gu ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Lucy Kirkwood
Lucy Ann Kirkwood (born October 1983) is a British playwright and screenwriter. She is writer in residence at Clean Break. In June 2018 Kirkwood was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in its "40 Under 40" initiative. Early life Kirkwood was born in Leytonstone and raised in east London. She has a degree in English literature from the University of Edinburgh where she performed as part of improvisational comedy troupe, the Improverts and wrote for the Edinburgh University Theatre Company. In 2005, she wrote and starred in her first play, ''Grady Hot Potato'', at the Bedlam Theatre. It was also selected for the National Student Drama Festival. Career Plays The following year she took two productions of her second play, ''Geronimo'' to the Edinburgh Fringe, under the title ''The Umbilical Project''. The two productions, ''Cut'' and ''Uncut'', were an experiment in cutting the cord between writer and production. ''Uncut'' was directed by Kirkwood herself and ''Cut' ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Faith Healer
Faith healing is the practice of prayer and gestures (such as laying on of hands) that are believed by some to elicit divine intervention in spiritual and physical healing, especially the Christian practice. Believers assert that the healing of disease and disability can be brought about by religious faith through prayer or other rituals that, according to adherents, can stimulate a divine presence and power. Religious belief in divine intervention does not depend on empirical evidence of an evidence-based outcome achieved via faith healing. Virtually all scientists and philosophers dismiss faith healing as pseudoscience.See also: Claims that "a myriad of techniques" such as prayer, divine intervention, or the ministrations of an individual healer can cure illness have been popular throughout history. There have been claims that faith can cure blindness, deafness, cancer, HIV/AIDS, developmental disorders, anemia, arthritis, corns, defective speech, multiple sclerosis, skin ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Brian Friel
Brian Patrick Friel (c. 9 January 1929 – 2 October 2015) was an Irish dramatist, short story writer and founder of the Field Day Theatre Company. He had been considered one of the greatest living English-language dramatists. (subscription required). He has been likened to an "Irish Chekhov" and described as "the universally accented voice of Ireland". His plays have been compared favourably to those of contemporaries such as Samuel Beckett, Arthur Miller, Harold Pinter and Tennessee Williams. Recognised for early works such as ''Philadelphia, Here I Come!'' and '' Faith Healer'', Friel had 24 plays published in a career of more than a half-century. He was elected to the honorary position of Saoi of Aosdána. His plays were commonly produced on Broadway in New York City throughout this time, as well as in Ireland and the UK. In 1980 Friel co-founded Field Day Theatre Company and his play ''Translations'' was the company's first production. With Field Day, Friel collaborated ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Trafalgar Studios
Trafalgar Theatre is a new West End theatre in Whitehall, near Trafalgar Square, in the City of Westminster, London. It is set to open in spring 2021 following a major multi-million Pound sterling, pound restoration project aiming to reinstate it back to its original heritage design. The Listed building, Grade II listed building was built in 1930 with interiors in the Art Deco style as the Whitehall Theatre; it regularly staged comedies and revues. It was converted into a television and radio studio in the 1990s, before returning to theatrical use in 2004 as Trafalgar Studios, the name it bore until 2020. History 1930 to 1996 The original Whitehall Theatre, built on the site of the 17th century ''Ye Old Ship Tavern'' was designed by Edward A. Stone, with interiors in the Art Deco style by Marc-Henri and Laverdet. It had 634 seats. The theatre opened on 29 September 1930 with ''The Way to Treat a Woman'' by Walter Hackett, who was the theatre's licensee. In November 1933 Henry D ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Homecoming
''The Homecoming'' is a two-act play written in 1964 by Harold Pinter and first published in 1965. Its premières in London (1965) and New York (1967) were both directed by Sir Peter Hall. The original Broadway production won the 1967 Tony Award for Best Play. Its 40th-anniversary Broadway production at the Cort Theatre was nominated for a 2008 Tony Award for "Best Revival of a Play". Set in North London, the play has six characters. Five of these are men who are related to each other: Max, a retired butcher; his brother Sam, a chauffeur; and Max's three sons: Teddy, a philosophy professor in the United States; Lenny, a pimp who only makes discreet references to his "occupation" and his clientele and flats in the city (London); and Joey, a brute training to become a professional boxer and who works in demolition. There is one woman, Ruth, Teddy's wife. The play concerns Teddy's and Ruth's "homecoming," which has distinctly different symbolic and thematic implications. In t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ancient Pistol
Ancient Pistol is a swaggering soldier who appears in three plays by William Shakespeare. Though full of grandiose boasts about his prowess, he is essentially a coward. The character is introduced in '' Henry IV, Part 2'' and reappears in ''The Merry Wives of Windsor'' and ''Henry V''. The character's first name is never given. He is referred to as Falstaff's "ancient", meaning "ensign", or standard bearer. ''Henry IV, Part 2'' Pistol is introduced as a "swaggerer" who suddenly turns up at the Boar's Head Tavern, contrary to the wishes of the hostess, Mistress Quickly. Falstaff tells her that Pistol is his "ancient" (ensign). He gets into a fight with Falstaff after an exchange of insults with the prostitute Doll Tearsheet, who calls him "the foul-mouth'dst rogue in England". Later, when Falstaff stops off at Justice Shallow's house after the defeat of Scrope, Pistol appears bringing news of the death of Henry IV, asserting that Falstaff is "now one of the greatest men in th ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Derek Jacobi
Sir Derek George Jacobi (; born 22 October 1938) is an English actor. He has appeared in various stage productions of William Shakespeare such as ''Hamlet'', ''Much Ado About Nothing'', ''Macbeth'', ''Twelfth Night'', ''The Tempest'', ''King Lear'', and ''Romeo and Juliet''. He has also performed in Anton Chekhov's ''Uncle Vanya'' and Edmond Rostand's ''Cyrano de Bergerac (play), Cyrano de Bergerac''. He was given a Knight Bachelor, knighthood for his services to theatre by Elizabeth II, Queen Elizabeth II in 1994 and is a member of the Danish Order of the Dannebrog. In addition to being a founder member of the Royal National Theatre and winning several prestigious theatre awards, Jacobi has also made numerous television appearances, starring in the 1976 adaptation of Robert Graves's ''I, Claudius (TV series), I, Claudius'', for which he won a British Academy of Film and Television Arts, BAFTA; in the titular role in the medieval drama series ''Cadfael (TV series), Cadfael'' ( ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |